The insert molding of contact terminals into plastic support members in electrical products, such as switches, terminal boards, relays and other types of components is an advantageous method which has been employed for a number of years. The contact terminals generally project through the support member in opposite directions, with one portion of the contact terminal being used to interconnect the switch into a printed circuit board or to a wire which is soldered to the contact terminal and the other portion of the contact terminal serving as a contact member for the switch or other device.
In recent years great advances have been made in reducing the size of electrical circuit components through the employment of semiconductor technology. As the size of the overall circuit decreases in a given application, the demand for smaller auxillary components, such as switches, relays, terminal boards and the like, becomes greater. In the manufacture of such components, the tendency of the plastic molding procedure to produce flash on surface areas of the contact terminal, which must be free of material for satisfactory operation, generally requires an additional flash removal step which is time-consuming and expensive.
One proposal for solving the flash problem is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,453 issued Oct. 5, 1965 to Zeke R. Smith. The solution of the Smith patent was to provide a body portion intermediate the ends of the flat contact terminal which was of an appreciably larger cross-sectional area than the remainder of the contact terminal. This solution, however, limits the reduction of the size of the switch, or other electrical component, substantially because of the enlarged area that is provided, thereby imposing an unnecessary restriction on the design of small electrical components. Moreover, providing the enlarged area is relatively expensive with respect to the solution of the problem that is provided by the present invention.